With Flash you can do more than just displaying videos. You can create stunning visual experience and offer your visitors incredible user interaction. Although Flash is definitely not the favourite medium for usability and accessibility advocates, it has its advantages and it empowers the Web with functionalities which make it an incredibly interactive medium. With Flash designers can achieve results which simply aren’t possible with (X)HTML and CSS.

The results can be creative, impressive, beautiful and fascinating. Under two conditions: 1) if designers find the right mixture between graphics, animation, video and sound and 2) if designers follow the guidelines of usability and user interaction.

However, since there is a number of things that can go wrong in Flash, it’s easy to get it wrong. In fact, there are thousands of examples where it is the case. In Flash any experiments with navigation and layouts are possible and in most cases it’s extremely hard to find a creative yet intuitive approach. Flash is commonly used by designers, agencies, advertisers and interactive web sites, and not on the sites where simplicity and quick access to information are important.

In this post we present 65 examples of outstanding Flash designs with excellent use of graphics, visual elements, interface design and graphics motion. This showcase (mostly) presents “pure” web designs; we’ve tried to avoid Flash-based games and advertising.

Mistake #1: Use Of Flash To Imitate (X)HTML/CSS

Flash shouldn’t be used if the designer tries to imitate (X)HTML/CSS-presentation. Long texts shouldn’t be embedded in Flash movies, because it’s harder (if possible at all) to work with the embedded text once you need to. Cubamoon1 is a perfect example of how this is done wrongly. The completeness of the design is enviable, its beauty irresistible, Flash-effects are stunning. However it’s really hard to work with the content of the site. Visitors can’t open links in new windows and the text can’t be selected and copied.

Flash’s strength lies in its ability to showcase unusual visual solutions, including graphic motion, videos and sound. Make use of them if you really want to achieve a stunning visual design, instead of imitating “conventional” web-presentation.

Mistake #2: Navigation Is Unintuitive

Whatever decisions developers make for the design of their navigation menus, the result has to fulfill three significant requirements: it has to be intuitive, easy-to-use and work properly. Whether the design is Flash-based or not is not that important.

The navigation is possible with the wheel which needs to be dragged. That looks easy, but it isn’t. Where is the grey zone between usability and creativity?

Using too creative approaches designers risk to confuse or even disturb visitors. The freedom for experiments with Flash may lead to unusual solutions which aren’t necessarily understood by all visitors.

Therefore designing in Flash never assume that the navigation can be arbitrarily complex and that visitors will take time to explore it. Users don’t like to wait. And if they don’t understand how the site works they leave. This is simple. And may cost you your money and your efforts. Be willing to compromise. Use creative approaches, but always take your visitors into consideration.

Mistake #3: Pop-Ups Are Still Used

That’s just wrong. Flash designers need to understand that pop-ups shouldn’t be used any longer. Almost every browser blocks opening windows. Tricks and convincing arguments don’t help any more. Use the screen size your visitors use. In most cases you don’t need more.

This is the visualization of a single by the band SWOD. It is called Waltz 57; the noise is also included in the single. Beautiful graphic motion. Built only with Flash and takes time to load. Better take a look at the video in small resolution.

User Interface, Navigation

d’strict uses some kind of a bubble-lupe as site’s primary navigation. To navigate you have to drag the bubble upon the layout. And no, the design is based neither upon grids nor upon columns. Explore.

Gerd Wippich

Using Flash is a good thing to display interactive elements – BUT (and this is a very big but!) I would not recommend it to design whole web sites with it, as long as Gooogle and other search engines are not able to scan the content.

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Chris Papadopoulos

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of these sites are stunningly beautiful and Flash does provide some advantages like the ability to embed typefaces, but usability issues with these pure Flash sites are a real concern. (also I’m sure there are some SEO issues as well)

If your customers have difficulty using your website, does it really matter how pretty it is?

Some of these sites’ navigation structure makes it impossible to give another person a link to a specific page. Or some of these sites actually have to give instructions on how to navigate the site. Thats a huge design failure.

A website is different from a magazine cover. Links on the internet are just text. A site doesn’t have to be gorgeous to attract users. It just needs to have good content so that others will link to it and easy to use so that people will want to come back.

It is still an interesting list to check out regardless of the above points I made because as mentioned, a lot of these sites are very pretty.

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Grey

I am actually a little disappointed with this one. the navigations on most of the “good” sites were awful. The pages were super slow loading. A few were knockouts but the rest were pretty poor examples of what a good flash site should be.

Ab.Wahid Ali

Brian k

JoK

Indeed, using Flash is very intersting in the case of doing a website with original navigation, but like in your first example, it’s not usefull at all, it’s better to do something in html/css and integrate some flash in div.

bradical

tzToonz

Every once in awhile something comes along in the realm of Flash Websites that just “Blows Me Away”…http://www.Dead-line.com is one of these, it’s incredible.
There’s probably some other great sites on the list.
Thanks for taking the time to find these gems, so I don’t have to set through all of the usual Flash websites loading times to be ultimately disappointed. You got the Power!

andrea

some of the 65 are good…but you list some that do exactly what you say not to do.

the deadline site, as example, is nice visually, but it’s impossible to read the actual content. sites that can combine these visual effects while also being “friendly” to whoever thieri audience is, seem to be a rare find. this doesn’t mean i am against flash at all, i love it, but it does seem to be abused still — flash designers: resizing my window and blasting me with your music, is still not ok, just like it wasn’t 8 years ago.

redwall_hp

James Ford

I disagree with ‘Mistake #1′ – the mistake isn’t in trying to imitate (improve?) on (X)HTML / CSS – the mistake, as far as you see it, is not being able to select and copy text and open new windows. Both of these could be achieved with Flash.

It’s not a mistake outright. But perhaps it’s a mistake to not provide the full plethora of capabilities that (X)HTML. Nevertheless, showing an awesome website and then poking holes in it is an awful lot like Jakob Nielsen’s whining about ‘Flash 99% Bad’… it annoys me so much.

luk

I have to admit that design level of almost every listed site is really impressive. But for me the problem is in fact that I don’t like to only watch websites. I like to use them and get information I am interested in. In many websites from the list you have to penetrate the screen blindly to find out what can be done at all. I call such vaner pages (visit and never return). cheers.

Oliver

i have only so much patience. some pages take ridiculously long to load even with a broadband connection. that annoys me majorly and i usually don’t bother to wait. i’d guess that most other visitors have even less patience (or maybe even a slower connection). so it seems to me that “how many users i drove away” became a measure of “my flash site coolness”.

i’ve watched some non-designers/coders interact with some of these pages and they’re just outright bored and most of the times confused, even if the pictures are “pretty”, if it’s not obvious what the site is about, why bother?

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nibbler

loading 1%……. 100%
[skip intro]
loading data 20%…… 100%
[searching button to turn off music]
[trying to navigate it]
[wondering how many years the designer spent on the looks, and how many seconds on the usability]
[wondering what to find on the website]
[not getting back to the previous menu]
[leaving, never come again]

[understand why major websites don’t use flash]

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ak

hmmm… some nice links – but really not great in terms of what flash can do that html/css can’t … this real-time integration of data and motion to illustrate noise levels at the schipol airport – i think IS a really great example of that:

totalabyss

“Visiting the agency’s web-site you actually visit their agency. Clean images, great use of video features.”

Somewhere in there you forgot to mention that it takes too long to get any information you are looking for. I’ve visited their site on several occasions and closed out due to having no patience for their waste of bandwidth.

I know you’ve interviewed one of their designers but please their site does nothing spectacular, if anything its equal to alot of sites circa 2003.

Toby Kanobie

how does one tell the difference between a flash site and html? I was told that the site online2income was all flash, but yet it ranks on search engines. something i read doesnt happen with a true flash site. Also what type of classes should i take if i wish to design flash myself, thanks anyone

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JF

Mistake #3 Pop-ups Still Used
That site loses its impact within a browser interface. Rather cry at browsers for existing at all.
I hope some day the only visual appearance of a browser is a field for the URL and nothing more.
Guys, great site. Love the big’n’bold typography. A pleasure to my tired eyes..

karkara

sandie sørensen

This site also has a lot of very great flash-sites. They can be found in the right side of the page a little down from the top i rounded grey squares.. They are – like this site – well worth the time to explore….

don

Papu

Mr Larky

I disagree with Mistake Number 2, that’s some of the most intuitive interface design I’ve used and seen. Testing it on a random group of students proved this, so I think it deserves to be taken off the mistake list.

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raja

Amlan Deb

I m a learner and would like to know how excelent 3D Animation Effect in Flash are made. As far as my Knowledge is concerned Flash is a 2D Tool. Then how such effects are made. If possible please inform me about links giving Tutorial about such effects.

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natural skin care

When i wans developing a flash site which is in rank “day spa los angeles” i found this problem but with this error site is working great and client like this. but i would like to know that how 3D animation works in flash ?

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george

What’s up with Flash haters? SEO is the only real issue and that is getting better all the time. All other issues are just as possible on traditional sites. Load times can be long if graphics are not optimized no matter the format of the site. Bad navigation is just as possible on a pure HTML site.
I think some people who don’t like Flash have some other axe to grind. It’s just another mode of expression on the web.
These are the same types of people who didn’t like “talkies” when they first appeared. What are you afraid of?

cecilia

raymond

Every time I browse a “best of flash” list, I hear the exact same chatter, ad nauseum. “Flash is terrible!” “It should be more then pretty”. “You can’t search it!” “I don’t have all day!”

All of these people are already self-confessed flash haters, and yet they will still take the time to wander through all the sites just so they can later complain about them and attempt to get everyone else to agree. Did we not already read the other 80 replies that whine and moan about the same thing? Why do we need your whining as well? So, they don’t have the time for the site to load, but they do have the time to navigate through 40 new flash sites? Which is it? You can’t have both. If something is unusable for you then don’t use it. If you don’t like a format then quit wasting your time. If this annoys you, then stop taking the time to annoy yourself. Isn’t it really that simple?

Some people just love to complain and will look for any excuse to do so.

steve

Steve Karwacki

I am split between Flash and just regular site design (HTML/CSS/Javascript/etc.)
Flash can either make or break a website. Flash can provide stunningly beautiful and intuitive effects to a website. But at the same time, there is a line between intuitive and disfunctional. Flash must be used with care. Most of the site’s above offer almost nothing to the user. Sure, they look great, but they lack information and ease of use. Most users upon arriving at te site, are sure to leave because: 1 they can’t find their way around the site. and 2 even if they can figure out the navigation, they are not offered any valuable information.
Most of the Flash sites above are beautiful and amazing, but I would never use one for my business. It just pushes users away.
Flash must be used with care.

Jackie

Flummoxed

I don’t get it. The author begins by praising the merits of sites whose content is clear and whose navigation is well-designed…and then proceeds to cite as examples a limitless host of utter navigation nightmares. Pretty confusing message.

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